The government of Bangladesh intends to expand cotton growing at the expense of tobacco production, according to a New Age story.

Farid Uddin, a director of the Cotton Development Board (CDB), was quoted as saying that 20,000 ha of the 70,000 ha now planted to tobacco would be given over to cotton cultivation.

The government wants to help the country reduce its dependence on cotton imports for meeting the growing demand of its textile sector.

Opposing the CDB plan, experts at the tobacco wing of the department of agricultural extension said farmers would not be willing to cultivate cotton instead of tobacco on land where currently 2-3 crops were grown in a year.

The initiative is not expected to go down well with farmers, too, because tobacco manufacturers tend to provide loans, fertilizers and seeds.